Opposition members in the Legislative Council cornered the government over delayed response to the crisis arising out of the failure of signalling system on Central Railway.

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A signal box between Vidyavihar and Kurla stations caught fire early on Wednesday,and train services on the Central line  local as well as long-distance  were crippled,leaving lakhs of commuters stranded on stations. This had also led to roads being congested as people took other modes of transport.

Raising the issue for the second consecutive day,leader of Opposition Vinod Tawde said the government has failed to tackle the situation,which led to the accident on Thursday morning. What steps has the government taken since yesterday? The issues of rescheduling examinations and granting concessions to office workers were raised yesterday as well. What has government done in this regard? said Tawde.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said the services would be back to normal by Friday night. At present,67 per cent of the services were operational,with the delay being 18-20 minutes. He added that BEST plied 215 additional buses to assist commuters and TMC,NMMC and ST also chipped in. He said the government had issued a GR permitting private vehicles to ferry people till Friday.

Sena MLC Neelam Gorhe said the government did not seem to deal with issues unless the Opposition raked them up. Sena leader Diwakar Raote questioned why guardian ministers of Mumbai had not gone to the spot and why the government had not made upfront assurances to the public.

Tawde said it could have led to a law-and-order situation in the city and questioned why the MbPT route was not opened up for better flow of traffic.

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Deputy CM Ajit Pawar said the situation was being monitored closely. BEST general manager Om Prakash Gupta was called for a briefing on Thursday morning and instructions had been issued,he said. Citizens have always co-operated with the government and adequate measures are being taken, said Pawar.